Terror dos Espiões

This is the finest serial ever made. Kane Richmond plays twin brothers battling Nazi agents in America. With expert casting, stunt work and direction this is Republic's finest hour in cliffhangers. The serial never drags and the camera work and doubling creating the illusion of twin is peerless.

This is an extremely well made serial. The cast is capable and the script is fast paced. Each chapter seems to contain at least one unexpected plot twist. There are no resolutions to cliff hangers which consist of the hero standing up, brushing himself off and walking away after experiencing a cataclysmic explosion, crash, fire, cave in, etc. Highly recommended.

This 12-chapter action serial from Republic Pictures, based on the Fawcett comic book character, was directed by William Witney. Alan Armstrong (Kane Richmond), in the guise of masked hero Spy Smasher, battles Nazi bad guys in occupied France. He follows their trail back to the US, where a secret gang of Nazi villains, led by the Mask (Hans Schumm), plots a campaign of sabotage and terror. Alan enlists the aid of his twin brother Jack (also Richmond), as well as retired Admiral Corby (Sam Flint) and his plucky daughter Eve (Marguerite Chapman), to stop the German menace.

This largely forgotten costumed hero makes for a good serial, with some of the best stunt work put to film, supervised by the legendary Yakima Canutt. The serial is also exceedingly violent compared to others of the time, with lots of gun play, including by the hero, who isn't above machine-gunning a foe or running one over with a car. Speaking of vehicles, there's also a lot of nice action scenes involving car chases, high-speed boats, and Spy Smasher's custom motorcycle. Although the action is above-average, the script is weaker, with unmemorable characters and only a vague understanding of who's doing what and why. Still, this is one of the better serials, and is recommended to fans of such.

I do so love to watch professionals at work.

When you watch "Spy Smasher," you see a genre and a studio at the top of their form. Everything in this serial clicks and hums along like a well-oiled machine. The plot is exciting and as logical as it need be, the music fast and inspiring, the cliffhangers harrowing, and the acting professional and dead-on. It's Republic Studios at the height of their game, ancestor to the big action flicks of today, and sheer pleasure to watch.

The score for Spy Smasher, a variation on Beethoven's fifth symphony, is a fabulous reminder of the era in which this classic serial was made.

While Spy Smasher is certainly one of the top 5 adventure serials ever made at Republic, it also is a rousing WW2 propaganda film. Check out the title sequence -- three dots and a dash appear on the screen, coinciding with the first four notes of Beethoven's fifth. Three dots and a dash are Morse code for the letter "V," made famous by Churchill's hand sign as a determination to defeat the Nazis and their cronies. Twin searchlights in the title sequence freeze into another V. The coded messages abound in Spy Smasher--even on Spy Smasher's belt buckle.

The action here is top notch, the cast capable, the stunt work great (as always at Republic) and the special effects likewise. If you like Republic serials (Zorro's Fighting Legion, Adventures of Captain Marvel, etc.) you MUST take a look at this one. It is one of the very best. Kane Richmond later went on to play the Shadow in a couple of films, one of which featured a killer who pulled his victims to their deaths off of balconies using a bullwhip, a stunt which was first seen in Spy Smasher. One thing I love about this chapterplay is the acknowledgment that we would not win the war without suffering losses. Great pacing, great action, great serial!